Official sources said the IRCTC late last month alerted the Ministry of Electronics and IT that only 38,500 RSPs had registered so far for IRCTC services.

The government claims 2.92 lakh common service centres (CSCs) deliver a range of services today to citizens across the country, a far cry from the 83,000 centres that existed during UPA rule.

But the IRCTC, meant to deliver e-ticketing services via retail service providers (RSPs) through 2.8 lakh such centres, has raised the red flag, saying the process of RSP registration is very slow.

Official sources said the IRCTC late last month alerted the Ministry of Electronics and IT that only 38,500 RSPs had registered so far for IRCTC services.

According to sources, the CSC E-Governance Services India Limited, a special purpose vehicle set up by the Ministry to oversee implementation of the scheme, had been permitted in June 2017 to register 1 lakh RSPs. Subsequently, in March this year, the IRCTC also approved enabling an additional 1.8 lakh RSPs to deliver e-ticketing services to citizens.

But the IRCTC, sources said, told the Ministry last month that registration of the RSPs by the CSC E-Governance Services India Limited was proceeding at an extremely slow pace and only 38,500 had been registered so far — way behind the 1 lakh RSPs sanctioned in June last year.

The IRCTC, sources said, wants the Ministry to step in and ensure that all 2.8 lakh RSPs are registered this month.

Reached for comment, Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of CSC E-Governance Services India Limited, said: “Almost 70,000 RSPs have already applied for registration with IRCTC. We are asking others to get registered with it. We are expecting that in the next three months, all RSPs will be registered.”

An IRCTC official, who did not wish to be named, said: “Our concern is that the speed with which registrations are being done, it may take two-three years to reach the 2.8 lakh figure.”

Through the common service centres, the government aims to deliver a range of services to citizens. These include mobile phone recharges, booking of rail and flight tickets, agriculture, education and health services.